


The Justice Shard

by Ended



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Dimensions, Cannon, Child Abuse, Cinnamon Roll Papyrus (Undertale), F/M, Gaster just wants to be a good dad, Lots of long chapters, Morse Code the skeleton, Oc I guess - Freeform, Possible smut later, Reader is done with Frisk’s crap, Sans (Undertale) Needs a Hug, Sans only thinks they are siblings, Swearing, but not from Gaster, but not really because, i need to stop writing so much, may add more tags later, please protect him, sister x brother, they are Not siblings, until its not
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 09:53:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22968025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ended/pseuds/Ended
Summary: Your dead. Lights out, curtain closed, Game Over.Oh, wait, no your not. You’ve been pulled into an alternate dimension where the characters and plot from Undertale exist. Weird part? Your no longer human. Best part? You get to live with Gaster, Sans, and Papyrus. Even better part? You remember basically everything from the game, so when Sans gets depressed you can help him through life. Never mind your huge cyber crush on him, that totally won’t change anything.
Relationships: Alphys/Undyne (Undertale), Asgore Dreemurr/Toriel, Dogamy/Dogaressa (Undertale), Mettaton/Papyrus (Undertale), Sans (Undertale)/Original Character(s), Sans (Undertale)/Reader
Comments: 91
Kudos: 257





	1. Prologue: A Not So Terrible Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You die, sure, but it’s not quite Game Over for you yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this instead of doing homework. Enjoy.

You’d never really thought much about death. It wasn’t a concept that scared you, and you didn’t really care where you ended up as long as you weren’t in any pain. So when someone broke into your house with the intent on stealing your things only to be caught and decided that killing you was an easier way to get away with the crime, the only thing that really came to mind was “but the family’s gonna be sad” and “who’s gonna take care of Bibble?”.

You had a high enough pain tolerance to drag your body into your room as your soon to be killer busied himself with unplugging your tv from the wall after you played dead long enough for him to consider you a goner, propping yourself against the stand that held your fish-tank turned snake-aquarium as you pulled out your phone to call the cops. You didn’t want your neighbors to notice the open front door and check things out, or family to come home discover you first. You also wanted to say goodbye to your favorite scaly friend before you kicked the bucket. The corn snake had kept you company in your room for the past few months, the newest addition to the household. You held one hand over your wound as the phone rang and picked up, coughing wetly as you told the lady on the line your address, what was happening, and about the gaping wound that was spilling stomach acids and your dinner all over the place. She told you to stay calm and keep pressure on the wound, to which you laughed horsley and told her that there wasn’t any coming back from this, not when you were holding your organs inside your body like you were, and how it would take 15 minutes at least for the cops to show up to where you lived. She paused for a moment, and you took the time to tell her that you wanted her to tell your family that you loved them, that your snake was to go to your mother as a companion, and to tell your father that you forgave him.

You listened to the woman give a choked promise that help was on the way, to which you smiled and told her that you knew. You stayed on the line while your vision slowly faded, tilting your head up to find Bibble looking down at you, their slitted gaze taking you in as their tongue flickered in and out of their scaly mouth. Not caring that the lady was still listening, you told them you loved them, and that they were the best companion you’d ever had. They slithered a little closer, as if sensing your need for comfort. It was then that you noticed the tears on your cheeks, further blurring your vision with the growing darkness. You let your head fall onto your chest with a heavy sigh, listening to the woman as she tried to console you. You thought about your life, how it wasn’t as bad as you’d thought it out to be, of your family, who were mostly there when you needed them, and your friends, who came and went, but kept you sane enough to get this far in life.

You chuckled groggily to yourself as the faint sounds of sirens started in the distance, followed by the curse words spilling from the mouth of your attacker as they scrambled to get out of your house in time.

_ ‘All in all _ ,’ you thought to yourself as you felt your heart slow to a near stop, ‘ _ not a bad death.’ _

~

_ ‘….. What the fuck?’ _ You thought, staring up into a familiar face as it hovered over you.

It’s wide smile pulled at the black line that ran from one eye to it’s lips, white pupils staring down at you through void-like eye sockets, the other of which sported another scar that ran up through the smooth white skull.

Gaster hung over you, gabbering away excitedly in Wingdings, which appeared in some sort of speech bubble over his head that seemed to be there and not there at the same time. You, ever the Undertale fan, did your best to decipher the code as it sped by, but that wasn’t working well at the moment. You scanned the rest of what you could see of him, his black lab coat, the tan turtleneck, his holy hands (heh) which were moving along with his speech out of habit.

You mentally thanked your asl teacher, and your ability to remember all the mostly unimportant things in your life as you started translating that instead.

“-and if you can come through then imagine what else we can do with it! Amazing!”

“Ok, what?” You asked, but the only sound that came out was a few odd beeping sounds, like those you’d use for morse code. The tones followed the lilt of the question towards the end.

Gaster paused entirely, his eye sockets scrunching up in confusion.

“What the hell was that?!” You yelped, smacking your surprisingly heavy hands over your mouth as more of the beeping emerged instead of words. The tones were panicked and swift. A clicking sound resounded in the room off the white ceiling upon contact with your mouth, and Gaster disappeared from your line of sight, seeming to have left for one reason or another. Not that you really cared, you were more fascinated by the fact that your mouth was closed but you could  _ feel your teeth _ .

You ran your fingers over them, scouring for your lips or a space where your mouth could open. There was none, and despite the fact that your fingers felt clumsy and your arms felt heavy, you continued to search for any sign of flesh. Nothing, just hard, smooth surfaces, and when you moved your hands into your line of sight while feeling over your nose, you screamed. The noise of one of those high pitched fire alarms sounding in one long note startled you enough to draw your attention away from your new skeletal digits, and the noise stopped when your attempts at screaming did. You felt your breathing start up, unaware until now that you hadn’t been taking in Oxygen, the sound of bones clacking together as you shake filling the room.

You’d read enough Undertale fanfictions in your day to be able to tell what was going on now. You were  _ in _ the game. Not only that, but it seemed that you were now a skeleton. You did your best to calm yourself, slowly stopping the incessant clacking of your bones and your panicked breaths. This was fine. You weren’t hurt, and if you were smart, you wouldn’t lose your mind about this new development in your afterlife. It hit you right then how funny it was that you were a  _ skeleton _ now. You let out a small, strained laugh, the sound like those little glass wind chimes your grandmother had.

_ ‘Ok,’ _ you thought,  _ ‘now that I’m calm, where am I?’ _

You lifted your head off of the hard surface you were resting on, only to find that it was a desk. The same desk in the skelebro’s basement, if the machine in the corner was anything to go by. It looked like it had broken down a bit, slightly smoking, probably the cause of your presence in the game, if fanfiction had taught you anything. The next thing you noticed was that you were very naked.

Your bones were pearly white, and if your size compared to the desk was anything to go by, you were a baby. It was a bit of a disturbing realization. You were rather embarrassed that Gaster had seen you in the nude, and a little unsettled by not only the lack of skin and organs that usuallly covered the white calcium, but you loss of height as well.

You suddenly got hit with a wave of tiredness, noting that Gaster wasn’t in the room anymore as you lay back down. You stared up at the ceiling for a while, only slightly startled as the sound of the door to the basement opening reached you. Gaster approached quickly, leaning back over you with that giddy grin on his as he held up a book, garbling something as you looked over the title.

“ _ The Joy Of Skeleton Tongue _ .”

He opened it and started flipping pages. He squinted at one, then looked at you, then back at the page.

“Hey, Gaster, my dude, could I get some clothes, maybe?” You asked, catching the attention of the taller skeleton with your questioning beeping noises.

He frowned, garbling something else. You noticed that this wasn’t working, so you did the next best thing. You lifted your heavy hands and started signing.

“Gaster,” you signed out, “need clothes.”

You were a little rusty, but his face twisted into excited confusion as he set the book down to sign back.

“Well, hello there. Who are you? And how on earth does a youngling like you know how to sign?”

It took a moment to think over the signing so you could place some of the more complicated bits, but you got it after a minute or so.

“Clothes first,” You finally signed, staring up at him, “then talk.”

He nodded to himself, turning to leave again. When he finally came back, he dressed you in a blue and yellow striped onesie. It didn’t take a genius to tell who this had belonged to. It fit you, if not being a little baggy, and seemed to be a little worn in the front along the legs, Probably from Sans’ crawling years.

“Ok,” you started, pointing to yourself, “died at home. Woke up here.”

Gaster blinked at you, “You died, young one?”

You nodded, tracing where the knife had slit you open and gestured around you, “Hurt here. Life stopped. Woke here.”

Gaster nodded grimly, seeming even more confused, “Where did you come from?”

You point up for a moment before dropping your hands. Your shoulders hurt, and you mentally cursed your lack of strength.

“What is your name?”

You frowned, huffing through your teeth as you tried talking again, “Y/n.”

No such luck, just more beeping.

“What was that? Do you know what —— you speak?”

You didn’t know one of the words, but put in “font” for obvious reasons.

“Arms tired.” You managed to sign before dropping your hands. Not to mention the fact that you really were getting tired enough to sleep, your eyelids (??) drooping. Gaster must have noticed, since he smiled a little, nodding.

“Sleep then, young one.”

And so you did.

~

Gaster was absolutely giddy. His machine worked, having brought something over from another timeline. Sure, he had made it to send monsters over, but he had to test if it could connect to other timelines at all. He was a little disappointed that it had been a baby, since he was aiming for a place on a surface somewhere, but he was glad that it was a skeleton monster so he could use “making another kid” as an excuse for her appearance. She was small. Smaller than Papyrus had been when he was made, and less chubby than Sans. Her bones sparkled with an almost unnoticeable iridescent sheen, and her eyelights glowed slightly yellow in her wide, dark sockets.

He thought she was rather adorable, telling her excitedly about how he was going to take care of her and see what else he could do when the machine was fixed. Imagine his surprise when her little mouth opened and high pitched beeping came spilling out, sounding a bit like some sort of old skeleton language and looking like a bunch of dots and dashes above her head. He would admit that leaving the baby alone in his basement while he ran upstairs to get his book on skeleton languages was not a bright idea, but in his defence, she was just fine when he came back.

He was even more surprised that while he was trying to find her alphabet she got his attention and signed out a clumsy request for clothing. He was excited to get information out of her, so nobody could get mad at him for leaving the child on the desk again when he ran to get her one of San’s old onesies. When he had dressed her, she told him that she had died, wherever she came from, and woke up here. Gaster felt a little guilty at that, thinking for a moment that the swap of universes may have been the cause of it, but then she drew a line along her stomach to trace what he assumed to be a killing blow, and was a little more relieved albeit slightly concerned that he hadn’t done it.

She fell asleep soon after, and Gaster stared at her for a moment before picking her up and taking her out of the basement. He was grateful that it was night time in Snowdin, so he didn’t have to sneak into his house to keep his boys from getting nosy. Sure, Papyrus was a light sleeper, so he had to tiptoe past his room, but Sans could probably sleep through the house burning down and not notice until someone dug him out.

He stepped into his room and closed the door quietly, kicking off his shoes as he walked over to settle the little body on his bed, taking a seat in his chair. He watched her sleep for a moment as exhaustion caught up with him. He would have to worry about this in the morning. There was nothing to do now but close his eyes and fall into oblivion.


	2. Chapter 1: Code

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You wake up in Gaster’s room, get a new name, and meet the skeleton brothers.

You woke up in a new room. It wasn’t one you’d ever seen in the game, and it smelled like your dad’s had back in your world, so you guessed that it was Gaster’s. His room was sort of messy, a few clothes and papers on the floor and on the desk under the window, but the rest was organized. The man of the hour was sleeping in a chair by the bed, his skull resting on the mattress. You felt hungry, so you reached as far as you could and slapped the top of his skull. He shot up like one of those floppy men you could find outside or on top of car dealerships, muttering something about his mother, if you translated correctly.

“No,” you said out loud, flinching at the high pitched beeping replacing your words that you’d forgotten about until now, “just me.”

He looked at you groggily, and you let out a giggle at his slightly disheveled look. He blinked at you, rubbing a hand over his face before slowly signing “breakfast?”.

You nodded as well as you could with your uncoordinated neck. He stood at that, stumbling out of the room. He came back with a bowl of what looked like malt o’ meal and a mug of coffee. He sat back in the chair, setting the mug on his desk so he could sit you up back against his pillows.

Sure, you were a little embarrassed that he had to do such a mundane thing for you, but it couldn’t really be helped, so you let him help you. He spoon fed you until you signed for him to stop, comfortably full and happy. He didn’t even seem to hesitate before finishing the rest.

He noticed the weirded out expression on your face and chuckled.

“Waste not, want not.”

You huffed, watching as he stuck a long arm back to retrieve his coffee. He took a sip, seemingly lost in thought as he stared at you. You busied yourself with looking your new body over. Your feet and hands interested you the most. They looked almost human, but made out of bones and joints that flexed and moved when you willed it. You felt extremely small in this form, like the world had gotten ten times bigger and left you behind.

Gaster cleared his throat, catching your attention as he started signing.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Are you ready to answer more questions?”

“Sure.” You shrug slightly, shifting just a bit to lean back further into the pillows.

“What is your name?”

“Y/n.”

Gaster paused, “That isn’t a skeleton name.”

“Not a skeleton.” You replied, “Or, wasn’t.”

His expression became perplexed. He seemed to think for a moment.

“What were you?”

“Human.”

If he had any eyes, you assumed they’d be bulging out of his sockets. He reached out a hand towards you, startling you into flinching back and letting out your alarm like scream. You felt a tug in your chest, and the room filled with yellow light. You both blinked in the brightness until you could make out a floating inverted white heart with a jagged line of sunflower yellow splitting it in half like lightning. It pulsed gently, and you could feel as it spilled magic into a line that connected it to you. Gaster looked at you with an unreadable expression.

“Not human anymore.” You signed nervously.

“I can see that, but the shard of human soul in you is enough to prove that you aren’t lying. Unfortunately, this isn’t enough of a soul to be any use in breaking the barrier.” He sighed, rubbing a hand over the scar on his skull.

“Gaster?” You signed questioningly, a little scared that he might try anyway.

“How do you know my name?” He asked, his posture suddenly defensive, as if he’d never seen you sign his name before. It probably had something to do with last night’s lack of sleep.

“It was a game.” You had to spell out the last word, “In my world. You were in a game.”

“What kind of game?”

“Video game. I played it. Found you in the void.” You spelled out void as you did game, not knowing how to sign either word.

“What is the void? How old are you?”

“Was 16.” You avoided the first question, shaking out your hands in supposed exhaustion as an excuse to not answer.

Gaster didn’t look surprised at your answer. He leaned back in his chair, thinking things over.

“What was in this game?”

“Everyone.” You're getting tired of holding your clumsy hands up again, “Asgore, Undyne, Alphys, Toriel, Sans, and Papyrus.”

He looked like his world had been flipped on its head.

“You know my boys?”

“Yes. Lots of humans do.”

“I see…”

He thinks some more for a while, and just before you try to get his attention to ask him about the prince, he looks back up at you.

“No one can know where you come from.”

You nod in understanding.

“You’ll have to have a new name. I’ll take you in and raise you. You can tell me all about your world, and I’ll teach you whatever you don’t know about this one.”

You nod again.

“Now,” he pulls out the book from before, “where is your font?”

You spend the next few minutes looking over the pages with Gaster, speaking once to give him an idea of what to look for. Gaster tells you about how skeletons can see other people speak, to which you tell him that you figured as much, and you both agree when you said a few letters of the alphabet out loud that your font is Morse Code.

Gaster tells you that it's a skeleton tradition to name children after their font, so this was to be your new name. You concede, under the condition that your called Code instead of Morse because Morse sounds like a boy’s name to you. Your arms are aching now, but when Gaster tells you that he’s going to take you to meet your siblings, you interrupt.

“No, I’m not related to any of you. I can be a charge, but not a sister.”

“It’s for the best.” Gaster tells you, “People will question your appearance otherwise.”

Your not happy about it. You don’t want the brothers to see you as a sibling, especially because of your cyber crush on Sans, but Gaster doesn't take no for an answer and scoops you up to take you downstairs. The house is almost as you remember it, except Gaster’s room, which will likely disappear when he falls into the void, and the painting of the femur, which is non-existent.

He takes you to the kitchen, the sounds of two young voices catching your attention as you approach.

Gaster garbles something out in an excited tone as he enters, and two sets of eyelights turn to you both. You all stare at each other for a moment before Papyrus jumps out of his seat and runs up to the both of you, his red-ish eyelights turning into big stars.

“HELLO TINY SKELETON! I’M PAPYRUS!” his words are garbled a little, likely from his young age.

You look down at him from your perch in Gaster’s arms, smiling before looking up to gage Sans’ reaction. His eye sockets are dark and he’s glaring in your direction. You feel your perma-grin dip into a nervous frown, turtling into your shoulders.

Gaster garbles out something else as he kneels down to Papyrus’ hight, holding you out so he can see you better.

“SISTER? I’M A BIG BROTHER?!” Papyrus squeaks, leaning over you and effectively blocking off Sans’ “bad time” glare.

You can’t help but smile up at the little cinnamon roll, giggling in that wind-chime tone as he reaches out his hand to touch you.

Gaster tells him something else from above you. Papyrus looks ecstatic.

“HELLO, MORSE CODE!” He chirps at you, “I HOPE YOU GROW VERY UP FAST SO WE CAN PLAY!”

You want desperately to nod, but you know it’s best if you try to act like a baby until you are “old enough” to react accordingly.

Sans is suddenly standing by his brother, still glaring, but you realize now that he’s closer that it’s not at you. You feel Gaster’s demeanor change from fond excitement to nervousness under his son’s gaze.

“dad….” he speaks, his voice chilling despite it not being his real creepy voice. “you can’t keep doing this…”

Gaster sat on the floor, motioning for Papyrus to do the same. When the younger skeleton is seated, he hands you off to him, settling you in Papyrus’s lap and telling him to make sure to hold your skull up (since he does so right after Gaster speaks) before saying something else to Sans.

“an  **_accident_ ** ?”

Gaster shifts uncomfortably, nodding a little. Papyrus leans farther over you, his teeth pulling into a nervous grin, seeming to have noticed your frown.

“Oh No Little Sister, No Need To Sad! The Greatest Papyrus Is Here!” He softly coos at you, his grin coming back a little at the end.

You decide then and there that your “first words” are going to be Papyrus. You put on your best smile and watch out of the corner of your socket as Gaster let’s Sans lead him to the living room.

“Dear god your precious, never change.” You tell him, knowing that he won’t know what you're saying.

He face scrunches up in confusion, proving your point.

“DAD? WHY DOES MORSE CODE SPEAK IN DOTS AND LINES? I KNOW BABYS CAN'T SPEAK VERY GOODLY, BUT ALL THE OTHER BABIES IN SNOWDIN SPEAK WITH LETTERS!”

Gaster calls back shortly.

“Oh….” Papyrus says softly, looking down at you in awe, “YOUR GOING TO SPEAK IN CODE, LITTLE SISTER? THAT IS VERY COOL!”

You giggle up at him. Dear god, you're going to die of skele-cuteness before your 5, aren’t you? Papyrus keeps you entertained until the other two skeletons re-enter the room. Sans makes a beeline for the two of you, still glaring over his shoulder at his dad if Gaster’s expression is anything to go by. He turns back and looks down at you, his expression softening as he switches his gaze from you to his brother and back again. You smile up at him as wide as you possibly can when he finally relaxes. You enjoy that look on him, his in game sprite doesn't do him any justice, even if he is younger than that Sans.

He smiled back a little, reaching down to pick you up. His blue sweater with dark blue stripes is soft to the touch, and it isn’t lost on you how ironic it is that he’s wearing something so similar to Frisk’s outfit in the game. You snuggle into him, hiding your face in his shirt. He smells of pine and books, likely because he has yet to get into his Grillby’s habits and ketchup drinking. Mentally you promise to tell him everything at some point.

“hey there Morse, im Sans. welcome to the family kiddo.”


	3. Chapter 2: Growing up montage 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A loooooooooong chapter. Sorry about the wait. Also, gets really depressing towards the end, but has a quick feel good ending I promise.

It’s been 9 months since your “birth”. Gaster had a decent amount of information about the timeline from you, but you had been strategic in avoiding big events that could mess up everything, feigning a slight loss in memory under the vise of not having played the game in years. You could sit up on your own now for long periods of time, and you’d been building up strength for crawling slowly but surely. You let Gaster teach you Wingdings behind the backs of the brothers to the point where you could understand a majority of what was being said.

You asked about the royal family when he brought it up, and it seemed that Chara had fallen several years ago, back when Papyrus had been newly made. You found out that your “brothers” were really made from the holes in Gaster’s hands. Sans was currently 5 (and extremely mature for his age), and Papyrus was 3. 

You had yet to meet anyone outside of the household, but Gaster had told the brothers to make sure their rooms were clean because company was coming. He smirked at you when you asked about it, unwilling to tell you much, and left you to your own devices in the living room. He had found out rather quickly that because of your mental maturity, you didn’t like to play with baby toys, and that he could leave you alone in a room by yourself (much to Sans’ apparent chagrin) without causing trouble. This allowed you to play with a few more complicated toys, like rubic’s cubes, any drawing utensils, and those small metal puzzles that you had to shift around until the pieces came apart before you put them back together.

You seemed to have kept your ability to draw, if not only slightly worse then you had in your world since the pencil was so damn big and your wrist got tired faster than it used to. Your art amazed both of the brothers, the first time had made Sans’ eyelights turn to stars much like Papyrus’ were.

Gaster still had the shakily drawn femur (modeled after your’s of course) taped to the fridge. It really wasn’t much to be proud of, but apparently skeleton art was pretty non-existent in the underground, so everyone in the house was excited to see some. You made sure to draw things you know the brothers had seen you see before. Currently, you were drawing the scruffy little dog monster on the cover of one of Papyrus’ books.

“HELLO, CODE! WHAT ARE YOU DRAWING?” Papyrus asked from behind you. 

You looked up from the sheet of paper on the coffee table to the cinnamon roll as he came bounding down the stairs. He was wearing an orange sweater with red stripes like most days, and his pants were brown. Smiling, you slid the paper over to him, watching as his expression lit up.

“WOWIE! THAT LOOKS LIKE THE DOG MONSTER FROM “THE LITTLE MONSTER THAT COULD”! YOUR DOING VERY WELL, SISTER!”

You clapped your hands happily, letting out your inner kid. You couldn’t speak coherently anymore. Papyrus, Sans, and Gaster were learning how to read Morse code so they could communicate with you when you “learned to talk”. You made sure to babble sometimes to make it seem like you couldn’t yet speak, but that was slightly embarrassing whenever Gaster was around because he knew you were a teenager, so you stuck to being quiet most of the time.

A knock at the door pulled you from your musings. Papyrus immediately went to answer the door.

“I’VE GOT IT!” He shouted, turning the knob to let in the cold from snowdin. Not that you ever got affected by the cold, without blood or organs, you had nothing you needed to keep warm.

A large goat monster stepped into the doorway, a simple crown adorning her small horns. Her paws were folded neatly in front of her on her simple purple dress, a darker purple cape flowing down over her shoulder. She looked down at Papyrus, smiling.

“Hello dear, is your father home?”

Papyrus blinked up at her, his sockets wide.

“Hello your majesty. Papyrus, let them inside.” Gaster commanded as he swept off the stairs and approached the door.

Papyrus did as he was asked, moving out of the way as Toriel stepped into the house. Two children, dressed in green and yellow sweaters with brown pants stepped in behind her. Asriel was first, looking around the house until his gaze landed on you and stuck. He lifted his free hand and waved excitedly. Chara stood behind him, clutching his hand, their bangs covering their eyes. They didn’t really react to you, but you knew from their posture that they would have rather stayed home.

“It’s good to see you, doctor.” Toriel said kindly as she stepped out of the way with her children to let in her husband.

King Asgore was a behemoth of a man. He had to stoop in the doorway to get his horns in the house, and when he straitened, he towered over everyone. He was decked out in his armor, a crown atop his great head. His wrist was probably thicker than your torso, and his hand looked like it could probably fit almost all the way around your skull with ease. He was a head and a half taller then Gaster, the man who had taken you in only reaching where his collar bone would be. His eyes scanned the room like his son’s until they fell on you, and a big, soft smile showing off a few fangs.

“There she is.”

He lumbered over to you, shaking the ground with his steps. It was rather terrifying to watch. A pair of boney arms suddenly wrapped around you from behind, picking you up and turning you around to cradle you to the owner’s chest. You looked up at Sans, who looked down at you for a moment with a reassuring smile before approaching the king to meet him. The gentle giant knelt, holding out a large paw.

“Howdy little one, you must be Morse. I’m Asgore, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“she prefers Code, actually.” Sans piped up from above you, his relaxed voice calming you slightly.

At first, you were a little embarrassed at the thought of wanting to look over the clawed, dinner plate sized hand in front of you. Then, you remembered that you weren’t even a year old yet in this world, and nobody but Gaster knew that. So, you grabbed a hold of his thumb and pulled the whole hand closer to you to examine it. You were correct in assuming that his hand could fit around your head, and you had no doubt that he was the largest of the underground’s boss monsters. Asgore chuckled at your awed expression, slightly surprised, but mostly amused as you held out your own hand for comparison.

“My, what a smart little thing.” Toriel said from your left. You hadn’t heard her approach, or her children, which were peaking around her to get a better look at you, “How old did you say she was?”

“She’s currently 9 months old.” Gaster answered from behind Sans.

“She's got your inquiry then.” Asgore rumbled.

“SHE'S REALLY VERY GOOD AT ART!” Papyrus announced, holding out your piece from earlier to Asgore, who took it with his free hand.

You let go of his paw to bury your face in San’s shirt, embarrassed at all the attention.

“Oh wow!” Asriel chirped, the displacement of air telling you that he came closer to get a look for himself, “Chara, look!”

You looked up from your hiding to see Chara approach their brother, peering down at the art and then turning to look at you. You looked away quickly, burying yourself back into Sans’ shoulder.

“Sans, may I hold her?” Toriel asked from behind you.

Sans was silent, and when you peeked up at him, he was staring down at you. You hesitated, but let go of his shirt a little. Sans, who was good at reading people, even as a kid, walked over to the queen and placed you in her arms.

She cradled you gently, looking down at you with a motherly smile.

“Hello, young one. My name is Toriel.”

You reached up to gently pet her ear in response, because holy crap, they were soft. She chuckled, looking down at you fondly.

“Gaster, I have some business with the core id like to go over with you before I leave. Could we go to the kitchen for some tea?”

“Of course, majesty.” Your guardian agreed, leading the way.

“Can I see her, mom?” Asriel asked, tugging at her dress.

“Of course Asriel.” She gracefully stepped over to the couch and sat daintily, holding you with practiced ease.

You turned as the young prince stood in front of you.

“Howdy! I’m Flowey Asriel! Nice to meet you!”

You repressed a cringe. His greeting was much like the one he used in game, and you really were not a fan of his demon flower form. Papyrus climbed onto the couch beside you.

“CODE DOESN'T TALK YET, BUT SHE WOULD PROBABLY TELL YOU THAT ITS NICE TO MEET YOU AS WELL!”

“your right bro.” Sans lazily stated, flopping down near the arm of the couch.

“Chara, come say hello!” Asriel turned, looking at their sib.

They hesitated, but came forwards anyway. When you reached for them, they paused, but gave you their hand anyway. You examined their hand, along with your own before you held it up and put your own to it. Sure, your hand was a little small, but their hand was a lot like your own. You smiled up at them.

_‘See? We’re the same.’_

“Oh, isn’t she smart? She seems to know you have a skeleton inside you, dear.” Toriel cooed.

You let go of Chara, looking back up at the matronly goat woman who was praising you.

“CHARA HAS A SKELETON INSIDE THEM?! WHY???” Papyrus asked, ever the innocent bean.

“All humans have them under their flesh.” Toriel explained, “Humans lack the magic monsters have to keep them standing, and so their bones act as a means to keep them upright.”

“Yeah! And that way, I can do this!” Asriel quickly wrapped his arms around Chara and picked them up, parading them around the room as they squealed.

Papyrus and Sans eventually joined in on the play, Toriel holding you close as if she were worried you’d fall off the couch, only interrupting the play if anyone got too rough. It was fun to watch, over all, and it only stopped when Asgore and Gaster re-entered the room.

“Thank you Gaster, I think that will make things much safer for those working in the core.”

“Of course my king.” Gaster bowed before coming over and taking you from the queen. You bapped your head on his clavicle in retaliation, drawing a chuckle from the man.

“It was nice to meet you, dear.” Toriel cooed as she rounded up her children and herded them to the door where her husband was waiting.

“Yes, and I do hope Gaster will come around to see us weigh you some day.” Asgore added, his eyes sparkling with mirth as he ducked under the doorway.

“Bye Papyrus!” Asriel called, pulling Chara out the door.

“BYE ASRIEL AND CHARA! COME BACK TO PLAY SOON!” Your brother replied.

Suddenly, the guests were gone and the house was quiet. You looked up at Gaster, making an exaggerated yawning motion, stretching a little.

“Alright. I’m taking Code for a nap. Would either of you like to join us?”

“count me in.” Sans said immediately, his future lazy showing through.

“THEN I SHALL AS WELL!” Papyrus chirped, racing upstairs.

You closed your sockets, and were asleep before Gaster got upstairs.

~

“Happy birthday to you~” Sang Sans and Gaster. You would have sang too, but you were pretty sure that it would come out as code, and code wasn’t the prettiest sound to listen to.

The now 4 year old Papyrus blew out his candles excitedly, his eyelights sparkling.

“Sans, help me go get the presents.” Gaster requested, luring the oldest brother away into the other room.

You’d told him that you wanted to say your “first words” as Papyrus’ birthday present. You tried to draw him a portrait, but you had always sucked at drawing people, so you drew him a skeleton dragon instead.

You banged your fist on the table to get his attention.

“Papyrus!”

His head snapped over to look at you.

“WHAT DID YOU SAY…?”

“Papyrus!” You grinned, using your year in high school acting to make it look proud. Sure, you spoke in Morse, but were you going to let that stop you? No!

“Papy, Papy, Papyrus!” You practically sang as he stared at you.

He looked like you broke him for a second before magic red tears welled in his sockets and his eyelights became stars.

“OH MY GOODNESS!” He squealed, leaning over to your spot seated on the table and hugging you, “YOU SAID MY NAME! JUST MY NAME, BUT STILL!”

_‘Happy birthday, Papyrus.’_ You thought, watching as Sans and Gaster entered the kitchen again.

“Papyrus!” You called out again, smiling up a storm.

Gaster gave you a look as Sans approached to try and prevent your older brother from crushing any bones.

Today was a good day.

~

It was silent. Honestly, for this kind of situation? You wouldn’t have it any other way. You sat still, hoping that a gust of wind wouldn’t whistle in your bones and give you away. It probably didn’t help that you were dressed in a bright yellow onesie with darker yellow stripes, but it couldn’t be helped now.

“Cooooooode~...” Cooed a voice, “You can’t hide forever, little one~.”

_‘Watch me.’_ You thought stubbornly, honestly hoping that your stalker couldn’t hear the pound of magic from your soul.

“This game your playing will end eventually, dear.”

_‘Oh, heck nah.’_ You grip harder to your hiding place as they come closer.

“I promise it’s not that bad. You and I both know you’ve been through worse…”

You watch as the dark figure below you steps into sight. God, you hope they don’t look up. It seems your thoughts have jinxed it though, because your gazes lock.

“... How in Asgore’s name did you get up there??”

“You’ll never take me alive!” You shriek back at him.

Gaster stares up at you from the ground, “In all seriousness, Code, how on earth did you get up there? Your two, you shouldn’t be strong enough to get to the top of that pine tree.”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Yes Y/n, I would like to know. Now please come down before you hurt yourself.”

“No! I refuse!”

“It’s just like a surface checkup, you’ll be fine.”

“Never!”

“Your brothers are worried.”

That makes you pause. The last thing you want to do is worry your two favorite skeletons and Gaster knows it.

“That isn’t fair….”

“Neither is you making such a fuss about this, and yet, here we are.”

You sigh heavily and let go of the tree trunk you’ve had in a vice grip. The ground rushes up to meet you for a moment and then everything stops. You look up to see Gaster staring at you with a panicked expression, purple sweat beading his skull, both eyelights blazing brilliant violet.

“Nice catch, Daster.” You smirk.

“Why must you do this?” He almost wines.

“Someone’s gotta keep you on your toes.”

He sighs and floats you over to him, “You're going to dust me from fright one of these days.”

“Nah, your boss status will prevent that.”

He cradles you in one arm, letting you grab a few fistfuls of his lab coat.

“Now, tell me how you got in that tree.”

“I’ve been doing a lot of self training at night. Being this weak sucks big time and I want to get back to top physical form as soon as humanly-... Monsterly?? possible.”

“You need your sleep, young lady.” He scolds, starting back towards the house.

“I don’t, really. There must be some kind of skeleton insomnia cause I only need 4 hours and it seems to be dropping. Papyrus will only need 3 when he’s fully grown.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, but Sans will get to the point where he’s sleeping whenever he can.”

“Interesting.”

“I suppose so.”

You’ve been purposely telling Gaster little tidbits you know he won’t really get to experience much since he’ll be in the void. Nothing world changing, but a few things that might make a parent proud.

The rest of the walk is silent, especially when you get closer to the house. The lights are on, and Papyrus has his face pressed against the glass. His eyelights light up when he sees you, and he rushes off the couch to open the door.

“YOU FOUND HER! WHERE WAS SHE?” Papyrus askes, reaching up to grab your offered hand.

“Playing under a tree.” Gaster responds, shooting you a knowing glare.

You giggle at him in response, rattling a few bones in what the others like to call a “happy rattle”. Sans peaks out of the kitchen for a moment, rushing over when he spots you.

“is she ok?”

“She’s fine, I just have to remember to always shut the door behind me from now on while I’m bringing in groceries.”

Sans takes you from the taller skeleton, frowning slightly at your snowy, wet outfit.

“common Code, let’s go get you warmer clothes.”

He turns to take you upstairs and retrieve one of your other outfits. You pout over his shoulder at a smirking Gaster, who knows you hate it when his eldest changes you. You get the feeling that he knows about your little crush, and you bury your face into Sans’ shoulder to hide your sunshine colored magic as it floods to your face.

You fight Sans the entire time he attempts to undress you. Purposely bunching your hands in the sleeves to prevent him from taking them off and attempting to roll over every time Sans’ focus drifts onto other tasks.

“Code, stop! your being so stubborn. can’t you just let me finish this?” He leans over you and you fight the blush that threatens to show, “for me?”

You go limp, your eyelights trailing to the ceiling, cursing whatever god is out there for putting you in this world as an infant. Sans makes quick work of the wet clothes, and you’re in dry ones before you stop thinking up plans to storm into heaven and start wrecking face.

“there. i don’t know why you were being so fussy, it’s not that bad.”

You look back down at him, frowning.

“is it today’s appointment?”

You roll over onto your stomach, laying face down on the carpet with a huff. Sans laughs behind you.

“i’ve done it. don’t you want to be a big kid?”

_‘I am literally older than you!’_ You think, slightly annoyed that he’s trying to use your current age status against you.

You feel Sans’ phalanges skim your sides, eliciting you to let out a startled squeal that sounds like one long fire truck wail that makes you imidiatly try to shut up. It seems to startle Sans as much as it startles you, if his full body jump is anything to go by.

“well, that’s new.” Sans states, picking you up and shifting you so your facing him.

“SANS! WHAT WAS THAT NOISE?” Papyrus calls from the hallway. Bless him for having the decency to give you privacy.

“just Code, bro.” Sans smirks down at you, and you chose to ignore him, not willing to acknowledge the fact that he now knows you're ticklish.

He huffs out a laugh before opening the door. Papyrus is looking anxiously up at the two of you. An idle thought makes you wonder if monster growth-spurts are painful like human ones, but you brush it off as Sans exits Gaster’s room.

“see? we’re fine bro. nothin to worry about.”

“YOUR SURE?”

“ ‘course.”

You miss his puns. He hasn’t made any yet. A few jokes every once in a blue moon, but no puns. Your going to change that as soon as you can go to the dump or the shop. There has to be a joke book somewhere.

The boys walk you downstairs to Gaster, who looks like he’s ready to leave. He smiles at the three of you, a fond expression that reminds you of how your mother used to look at you in your old life. It didn’t seem to matter that you weren’t actually his kid, he’d claimed you as his own and it meant a lot to you.

“Are we ready to leave?”

“yeah, but she doesn’t want to.” Sans shrugged, struggling to pry you from his shoulder and hand you off to his father, “ fwew, she’s getting strong. Did you give her the battle-ready part of you?”

“No, she got my beauty, see?” He held you up as if to prove a point, but you’d never seen yourself in a mirror in this universe, so the only hint you got was the subtle disbelieving scrunch of Sans’ face that said otherwise.

“ok old man, just don’t drop her in the river on your way to Hotland. we really don’t need to fish her out like you did with Papyrus.”

_‘What?!’_

“I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about, Sans. Goodbye! Take care of your brother!”

And with that, the door was shut, and Gaster walked off with you into the snow. It was rather relaxing. Or, it would have been, if you weren't suddenly worried about the boat ride to Hotland.

“Something you wanna tell me, Gaster?”

“Not particularly, why?” His voice was calm, but a bit of nervousness flickered across his face.

“Let me rephrase that, you dropped _Papyrus_ in the _river_?”

“In my defence, I was running on an hour of sleep after working for two days straight, and the king needed to see me.”

“That isn't a defence, you dropped your youngest in a river.”

“You're my youngest.”

“Mentally, I'm your eldest. Also, Undertale was only created 6 years ago, so if you want to look at it logically, I’m 10 years older than this entire Universe.”

The thought seemed to make Gaster pause in whatever his train of thought had been previously. He looked down at you, searching your face for something. You looked away from him when some monsters passed, watching as they took a moment to stare at the two of you and watch you leave, whispering to each other.

“I suppose you are correct.”

And with that he kept walking. The only sounds in the air were the crunching of snow beneath Gaster’s feet and the soft sound of the river rushing along to our left. It was peaceful, that was until he spoke up again.

“So your a goddess then?”

I look up at him in surprise, his violet eyelights meeting my own.

“I wouldn’t go that far.” I hesitated momentarily with what I was about to ask next, but my curiosity drove me on, “What do you know about timelines?”

The tallest skeleton’s eyelights sparkled, “I’ve been studying the theory for the past 4 years. I’m assuming that the theory is reality if you're asking me?”

You nod, “There’s millions of timelines and alternate universes, each different in one way or another. Each is created by the humans in my dimension, with the Prime Alpha Timeline being the brainchild of a man named Toby Fox. I myself never made an AU, so if anything, I’m simply an Observer instead of a Creator. This is one of the Alpha Timelines, if my theory is correct, but it could take a turn onto a more….” you shudder at the thought of Horrortale, “darker one….”

Gaster hums in interest, approaching the place where River Person has their boat parked.

“Tra la la.” They sing from beneath their hood, “I am the Riverman. Or am I the Riverwoman? It doesn't really matter. I love to ride in my boat. Would you care to join me?”

“Of course.” Gaster states, climbing on board and making sure to keep a tight hold on you.

The hooded figure turns to you. You stare into the void of their hood, and can feel them staring back.

“Oh ho ho, aren’t you curious?” They hum, tilting their head a little, “Come back one day, will you?”

You nod, a smile pulling at your teeth. Gaster seems a little baffled, shooting you an odd glance when you turn back to him. You shrug, shaking your head.

“Don’t worry about it.”

He seems disappointed, but accepts your dismissal of the subject. You told him years ago about how changing the timelines too much could end in disaster, and he knows that you’d tell him if it wouldn’t change anything.

The boat ride is swift, taking us to Hotland in a matter of minutes where the walk would have probably taken hours. The heat was suffocating, not that it really mattered since you were a skeleton, but you agreed with Papyrus’s opinion of the hellish landscape. Gaster walked along as you examined the environment. You’d never seen lava in person before, and it was fascinating to watch it bubbled below the path. Watching the boiling rock kept you occupied until Gaster finally stopped in front of the lab door. It opened for him automatically, and you both stepped in.

The sight that greeted you was one you weren’t accustomed to. Instead of how the place looked when Alphys lived there, it looked like an actual laboratory. Tables were scattered along the space holding experiments, some finished, others in progress. There were a few machines that you didn’t know the uses of, and a few parts that looked like they may be for the DT extractor in the future, but weren’t being used for that right now.

A few monsters looked up from where they were working, seeming to straighten up as Gaster approached.

“Dr. Gaster! I’ve gotten the results from the research on the human souls, and was wondering if I could go over them with you.” Said a human looking entity.

Upon closer inspection, they seemed to resemble Gaster Follower 1, if the follower was wearing clothes. They were dressed in a white lab coat, a grey t-shirt with the darker grey cross patterns that the game sprite had, and a pair of grey leggings the same shade as their shirt. They had light green eyes with darker green pupils and grass green skin that was only a slightly darker shade then their eyes.

“I’m afraid I’m not in to work today. I’ve come to get my daughter registered and CHECKed.” Gaster replied, holding you up a little more to prove his point as he did his best to sign with one hand.

“But sir, you can hand them off to one of the others, this shouldn’t wait!” They stated anxiously.

“It can totally wait,” a bird looking monster with their head bent downwards said, looking up at Gaster from their seat, “He’s just being dramatic.”

Gaster Follower 3 was bright orange with a pair of the smallest wings you’d ever seen. It reminded you quite a bit of a Tyrannosaurus rex, and you momentarily wondered if this monster was somehow related to the carnivorous reptile. You could see how one might have mistaken them for a face popping out of the ground, but now you could see that the sprite had just had their small beak open and one wing up as they whispered to Frisk in the game.

“You're not helping! This is serious! It could be a breakthrough!” Huffed the green monster as they slammed their pen on the desk.

The noise made you flinch, “Ow, that was loud…”

That seemed to get the attention of everyone in the room.

“They speak?” The bird monster asked, hopping off their chair to approach the two of you, “What font?”

“Meet Morse Code.” Gaster introduced, “She's my youngest.”

“Gaster, I’m your eldest.” You correct, “I’m older than you.”

“Yes, but they don’t know that, do they?” Gaster teases back in Wingdings, “And besides, it’s rather confusing to think of you as older than the universe when you have the mind of a teenager.”

“They must be pretty intelligent to be having a full conversation with you, huh WD?” 1 askes, also approaching.

“They are.” Gaster bostes with one hand, looking proud, “Now, I’ll be back tomorrow to look at those results with you. Keep up the good work.”

The two nod respectfully, and Gaster carries you over to the elevator that would later become Alphys’ bathroom. As the two of you descend into the true lab, you take a moment to marvel at what you’ve just seen. The Followers are here, and very much alive if the two on the first floor prove anything. You wonder where the other follower is, since Goner Kid probably won’t be in the labs until later in the timeline.

Your question is answered when the elevator door opens and a light blue monster walks into view, holding a clipboard.

“Oh! Hello Doctor, I wasn't expecting you in the labs today.”

Gaster Follower 2 is a blue cat, probably related to Burgerpants and the monster outside Muffet’s if you had to guess. He stands tall, unlike his slouched sprite, and isn’t holding a face.

“I’m giving my new daughter a CHECK-up.” Gaster explains, struggling to sign a few words without the use of one of his hands.

“Ah, I see. Well, the room is clean and open for you when you get there. Just be careful for any screws on the floor, I just put in that new part you asked for a few days ago.”

He smiles at the both of you and waves, disappearing elsewhere in the lab. Gaster takes you down another hallway, and after a long walk, turns into a room you're unfamiliar with. It has a few machines, a sink, and a singular operating table with a computer chair next to it, but those are the only things of note. Gaster sets you on the table to get something, and comes back with a small device that looks like a voice recorder. He clicks the button and sets it on the table next to you.

“This is WD Gaster, head royal scientist. I’m making this log to record all scientific findings about my daughter, Morse Code. I will start with a SOUL scan to determine HOPE and status. Then, I will perform an encounter to determine ATtacK, DEFense, EXecution Points, and Level Of ViolencE. Lastly, I will complete a SOUL scrape to determine any other uncaptured data.”

He steps away from the table to fetch a large car-battery looking object, which is attached to what seems to be a grocery scanner. When he sets it down on the table next to you, he turns the large rectangle part to show you a screen. He takes the scanner and holds it over your chest, finger hovering over the button in a poise to press it, but you stop him with a hand on his wrist.

“Will this hurt?” You ask, the timidness in your voice coming through in the beeps that make up your words.

“No, it feels a bit like someone setting a cool towel over your soul to cover it, and the sensation disappears when my finger leaves the button.” Gaster kindly explains, “The only thing that could possibly hurt you is the SOUL scrape, hence why I saved it for last.”

You shift uncomfortably, but drop your hand to your leg with a resounding clack to let him work. It does feel like a cold blanket is being dropped over something in your chest, but there’s also a small part of you that feels an explorative buzz start up. It seems to creep over a specific part of your soul and explore it. The machine beeps, and the screen fills with an image of your soul and a few bits of information. The jolt of bright yellow down the center makes it look like there was a piece missing and someone filled the crack with solid sunlight.

“Her HoPe seems to be fluctuating a little between 87 and 96, but seems to pause for a longer moment on 96. This abnormality could just be due to the JUSTICE SOUL addition, or it could be that the monster parts of her are still trying to meld with the JUSTICE SOUL itself. Further observation is required. She is, as I predicted, a Boss monster.”

“What do you mean, still trying to meld?” You question as he takes the machine away and comes back to stand in front of you.

“It's simply a theory, my dear. When you were pulled to this dimension, your SOUL shard had nowhere to go. Using the power that it possesses, it captured the magic that the machine used to pull it through and formed the monster SOUL parts around itself to help keep it alive. It may have used me as a base of sorts, which would explain why you're a skeleton, but I don’t have any more information than that. Nothing in this world is like you, Code, and I highly doubt there will be anything like you again.”

You ponder it a moment in silence. It makes sense, or at least as much sense as one can make in a situation like this. You're pulled from your thoughts by the room turning dark around you as Gaster starts the encounter.

“You get the first turn, Code.” Gaster explains, smiling down at you with his hands behind his back.

“Oh… um…” you glance down at the three buttons in front of you. FIGHT is immediately ignored, despite the thought of using magic, while MERCY and ACT prompt examination. You click the ACT button, a little surprised with the options that appear.

*Hug

*Check

*Ask a question

*Karma 

Curious, you click Karma. Two options pop up in front of you.

*Good

*Bad

You click Good, unsure if you’d like the other option. A message appears on the screen.

+5 ATK

+5 DEF

+3 SP ATK

*Gaster now has a raised chance of out-of-battle good fortune!

“What did you do?” Gaster asks in confusion, probably over his changed stats.

“I don’t really know. There was an option in ACTions called Karma and I gave you the good one.” You shrug, just as clueless as he is.

“Really? Interesting, we will have to examine it another time.”

He CHECKs you, pulling out a notepad to write down the information.

“Your turn, my dear.” He comments puts his notes away.

You go back to the ACT button out of curiosity, clicking on check this time.

*Gaster

*HP 666666

*ATK 666666

*DEF 666666

*Finds you fascinating.

You smile a little at the description, looking up from the information to Gaster’s cracked face. He smiles back, using his turn to end the fight. He turns his attention to the recorder and clears his throat as if he needs to.

“She has and ATtacK of 13 (82), a DEFense of 9 (78), an abnormally high LV of 17, and an EXP of 32….”

He looks at you in slight concern. He clicks pause on the recording and sits in the computer chair.

“Code? Is there something you would like to tell me..?”

“I haven’t killed anyone, if that’s what your asking.” You bluntly state. The only lives you’d ever taken were bugs, and most of them were accidental.

This seems to worry him even more. He leans forwards, his voice dropping to a soothing tone.

“.... Did someone hurt you..?”

You lean back on your hands, sighing as your eyelights drift to look up at the ceiling. After years of these kinds of situations, you know that if you get worked up you’ll spill everything. You shove down your mounting anxiety and put on an air of indifference. There’s no use getting worked up about something you can’t ever go back to, even if you wanted to.

“Well, I don’t really know if you’d count it as hurting. It was mostly emotional and physiological.”

Gaster’s face darkens, “What did they do?”

“Yelling at me for my bad grades, blaming everything bad that was going on in my life on me, telling me “politely” that I was getting fat, calling me and everything I did garbage. There was the time we were on the way to go somewhere and they grabbed my arm so hard I got red marks and yelled in my face. The time when they pulled me up from a table and yelled in my face before they spun me around so I lost my balance and slammed into a fridge....”

You return your gaze to Gaster, whose expression is shifting back and forth between horrified and furious.

“.... You didn’t tell your parents about this…? Your mother could have talked to them, your father could have protected you.”

Unable to meet his fiery gaze anymore, you look to the tiles beneath his perfectly shined shoes and shake your head, “It _was_ my father.”

You hear him inhale sharply and stand, his shoes clacking as he retreats to another part of the room. You look up to see where he’s gone, a little worried that he’s leaving you. He’s bent over the sink, one hand nearly bending the metal side in a strong grip and the other gripping the fabric of his shirt over his soul. He’s turned away from you, but you see the purple glint of magic tears as they slide off his skull and drip into the sink.

Your touched by his show of emotion, but the years of pushing back any sort of negative thoughts until you feel nothing makes you focus instead on the mystery of if his tinted tears can stain fabric.

“..... How are you still alive…?” Gaster asks shakily, hunching more in on himself.

“Well, he never got close to threatening me. I was terrified for a while that he might one day threaten my life, but it never came.”

Gaster is silent for a while, obviously trying to calm down. When he turns back to you, his expression is deeply disturbed.

“Any monster who went through what you did would be dust,” he explains slowly, “even without any of the physical abuse.”

You stare at him in shock. You knew that a monster’s soul _was_ the monster, but you didn’t think that hate alone could kill them…

“How are you not broken?” Gaster asks, walking over to you and holding your tiny skull in his hands, “You lived with a human who was supposed to protect you; to love you unconditionally and support you through everything but did the opposite… How are you so kind to me and my boys? Did you ever tell your mother what was happening?”

“Yeah, but they were divorced when it got bad, so there really wasn’t much she could do. The human police needed evidence, and she didn’t have any.”

He seems to have an epiphany, and uses one hand to pull out your soul and hold it up to his face to examine closely.

“How is your SOUL so unblemished-“ He pauses, pulling it closer until it was a few inches from his face, “Oh… oh Y/n….”

You stand on the table to get a closer look yourself. You grab his wrists for balance as you stand on your tippy-toes and lean in. With your nose about 3 inches from your soul, you notice what he’s talking about. While the monster parts are solid white and completely smooth, the human shard is completely covered in cracks that split it’s surface, hidden by the brilliant yellow glow that makes it look untouched from a few more inches back. The cracks are crisscrossed with scars, some old, some new. The whole thing seems to be held together by a prayer.

“Why does it look ok from further back?” You ask as you attempt to take your [beaten](https://www.deviantart.com/xsquirblex/art/The-Justice-Shard-836982607) soul from him.

He lets you have it without a fuss, but pulls you up off the table to cradle you in his arms, one hand wrapped under your legs while his arm supports your back, and the other hand pressing your skull into his collarbone. You find that the position isn’t the least bit painful, and instead makes you feel secure and taken care of.

“You got masterfully good at outwardly hiding your pain.” He explains softly, “And as a result, your SOUL got good at hiding it too.”

You both sit there for a while in silence, you cradling your horribly battered soul and him cradling you in turn.

“There will be no SOUL scrape today.” He finally breaks the silence, pushing your soul gently back into your chest, “We are going to go get Cinnabuns.”

His voice holds a finality, and you grin, happy to have found home with these silly skeletons who care for you more than you care for yourself. Gaster’s Followers are all on the 1st floor when you get off the elevator. They look up as Gaster walks by, but the solemn expression the must be on his face stops them from speaking up. The trip back to Snowdin is rather silent, but as promised, Gaster gets you both a Cinnabon. Before he can turn to leave the shop, you ask him to get one for Sans and Papyrus, to which he happily obliges.

The boys are waiting for you when the door finally opens, and you and your skeletons all pile onto the couch to watch an old animated vcr movie that you don’t know the name of. Gaster keeps you on his lap, while Sans puts his head on his father's arm and Papyrus bounces on his knees when the exciting parts happen. It’s calming, and you realize that you really don’t want anything but to stay right where you are for the rest of the day.

You fall asleep to Papyrus’ excited exclamations as the hero battles the villain and the deep chuckles from Sans and Gaster. And for once in your life, you feel perfectly


	4. A/N (please help)

Please tell me what you guys want to see in regards to Code’s childhood. I won’t talk about her human childhood, just her monster one, but almost anything else is fare game!

**Author's Note:**

> I’m hoping posting this will help me to keep writing it. Thank you to all the people who wrote the stories that inspired this (I’m too lazy to credit them all, please tell me if you know where they come from and I’ll credit them), and have fun reading I guess.


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